Climate change in the past: First indicators of resilience in tropical life, provided that global warming did not exceed 1.5 degrees
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-Jun-2026 23:16 ET (15-Jun-2026 03:16 GMT/UTC)
New geological data indicate that marine life is somewhat resilient to warming in the tropics. Chris Fokkema, earth scientist at Utrecht University, discovered that tropical algae were largely unaffected by a number of periods of global warming of up to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the distant past. These unicellar organisms form the basis of food webs and are generally very sensitive to rising temperatures. Previous studies of periods of even greater warming showed a dramatic decline in these organisms. “Somewhere beyond those 1.5 degrees, a tipping point occurs.”
An international team of archaeologists and scientists has reconstructed the diets of prehistoric communities from north-central Poland, shedding new light on how people adapted to changing environments and shifting social landscapes over three millennia between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
During an archaeological survey conducted in February, researchers from the Maritime Encounters programme at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, identified six previously unregistered Bronze Age mines in Extremadura, southwestern Spain. The discoveries may represent a crucial piece of the puzzle in understanding the origin of the metal used in Scandinavian Bronze Age artefacts.
A new research technique provides a fresh vantage point to Stone Age burial outfits and their decorations.
A new study has determined that the archaeological site of ‘Ubeidiya in the Jordan Valley dates back at least 1.9 million years, pushing back evidence of early human presence in the region by hundreds of thousands of years and positioning the ‘Ubeidiya site, together with Dmanisi, Georgia, the oldest evidence of early humans outside of Africa. The discovery revises a critical moment in human evolution, indicating that ancient pioneers, equipped with a diverse array of stone tools, were established in the Levant at the dawn of our species’ global expansion.
A new study from Bar-Ilan University is shedding light on a long-overlooked social group in archaeology: the elderly. While research on women and children has flourished in recent decades, older adults have remained largely invisible, their lives reconstructed primarily through skeletal remains. Now, Bar-Ilan archaeologists present a new and innovative study, identifying the elderly through household artifacts, offering a fresh window into their daily lives and social roles.